


Gay Kids Group Together

by lesbianoodle



Series: NepreziWeek 2K16 [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Cosplay, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Fluff, Humanstuck, Love at First Sight, Minor Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam, Steven Universe References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 21:04:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7656703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianoodle/pseuds/lesbianoodle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"She makes me feel so happy and full that I think I'm going to puke sometimes." </p>
<p>Dave wrinkles his nose. "Love is gross like that, isn't it?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gay Kids Group Together

Your name is Nepeta Leijon and it's your first day at Skaia High School. 

So far, you've pretty much survived the day thanks to seating plans, which means you don't have to look for somewhere to sit in class. You just get pointed in the direction of your seat. Most people seem able to tolerate you, though one especially obnoxious girl called your cat puns "lame" and tried to knock your hat off your head. 

However... Lunchtime. It's a different matter altogether. You stare around the cafeteria, bagged lunch that your sister made in hand, and realise a couple of things. 

Joining halfway through the semester means you don't have a clique or a handful of friends to hang out with. Everybody else has slotted easily in place and left you with nowhere to go. You can't see any available seats, even on the tables that are less populated, and wonder if it's even possible squeeze your way onto a table. It seems like seats here as designated too, though maybe not by a teacher, but by the groups themselves. 

And, on top of that, you realise that you aren't meant to bring your own lunch to school. Most people either seem to be eating the greasy cafeteria pizza or slurping Capri-Suns. A lot of students seem to be breaking apart candy bars and sharing them between themselves. At your last school, people always brought lunches with them from home. You suddenly feel like an idiot for clutching your childish lunch with it's roll, chips, and cookie. 

Finally, as you look around the room, you realise that people are giggling at you. You realise the source of it is that mean girl that sat next to you in AP English this morning and tried to knock your hat off your head. Now, she's talking to the girl next to her with the braids and they both seem to be laughing at you. As soon as she catches you looking, she's on her feet and moving towards you. You, the mighty huntress, puff your chest out and stand strong. You are the huntress, not the hunted, and you won't let her intimidate you. 

"Hey, loser." You can't look her in the face, so you study the spider printed on her shirt, "What's wrong? Got nowhere to sit? Maybe you should have brought some of your dumb friends from your special ed class to sit with you." 

You can feel your cheeks turning pink. "I'm in AP Lit with you. Not special ed."

_What's wrong with special ed anyway? You spent most of middle school there. It's where all the nicest people are!_

"Really? You sure could have fooled me with your talking to yourself and pretending you're cat? I mean, you don't actually think you're a cat, right?" The girl realises you're not looking at her and pushes your shoulder, "Hey, don't look at my tits, you lesbian." 

"I don't actually think I'm a cat. I'm a roleplayer." You don't mention that you are, in fact, a lesbian and you don't find the word insulting at all. It's like calling somebody a Capricorn.

"A roleplayer?" The girl laughs.

"You have LARP badges on your jacket." You say, pointing, "I would offer to roleplay with you but I don't like people like you, so I'm not going to." 

You hear a cackle from nearby and realise that this is no longer a minor conflict. It's very quickly become a performance for nearby students, who are all watching as if it were a sporting event. You wonder if picking on the new student is some kind of induction that happens at high schools like these. Suddenly, you wonder if you shouldn't have come here in the first place.

The girl, who now has her arms firmly folded across her chest- is she really worried about you staring at her? She's not your type at all- raises an eyebrow. It's got a piercing stuck through it, you notice, and you bite down on your tongue so you don't ask questions about it. You wonder if it hurt and if it's cool to have a metal stud in your face. She's also wearing clothes that look like they've been ripped intentionally, almost shredded to pieces. 

You smooth down your parka and wait for her next words. They don't come. 

"You don't have to take shit from her." comes a new voice instead, as a girl gets to her feet and strides confidently over to you; she was sat at one of the nearer tables, watching the exchange intensely, and you think she was the one that cackled earlier. 

"If it isn't the Blind Blunder..." The mean girl sneers, "I'm not sure this is the kind of company you should be keeping, Terezi, if you want to get into a top college. Losers like this could drag you down. You need to retain a high social status." 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Terezi says, sounding bored, "C'mon, new girl, you're with me." 

You're lead away from the mean girl before you can put to much as a word in. You're vaguely aware of her yelling that somebody called Pyrope would regret this someday, when she missed hanging out with the coolkids, but you don't know what that means. Instead, you follow the girl that rescued you to her nearby table and hover beside it, unsure. 

When Terezi pats the seat beside her, you sit down with a thump.

"You said you were going to rescue her, you didn't say you were going to adopt her." comments a blonde-haired boy with round shades balanced on his nose. He seems to be addressing Terezi because he's looking at her but he's shuffling his iPod with his left hand. 

"Hey, I can help out a cute freshman or two." Terezi shrugs her shoulders.

"I'm a sophomore." You tell her and she chokes on the long sip she was taking from her slushy. Where did she even get a slushy from? This school doesn't have any machines as far as you're aware but her tongue and teeth are stained purple as the evening sky. 

She recovers quickly from her choking fit. "It's nice to meet you, Miss Sophomore."

"Welcome to the worst table in the entire cafeteria." A kid you hadn't even noticed with a thick pair of glasses and a Gameboy in his hands says, not even glancing up at you, "Enjoy your stay and make sure to duck any incoming objects that Vriska may or may not throw at your head. You've definitely made an enemy there." 

"That's the most I've heard Captor say this year." Shades sounds amused. 

Terezi shakes her slushy at you and you take it, slurping from it until your tongue turns cold.

"Red is the best flavour." She says and you realise that Shades has a blue and they're swapping back and forth like the drinks are Pokémon cards; you hand her cup back empty and she tosses it in the trash with one easy throw, "Lemme introduce you to our lovable band of misfits. I'm Terezi, debate club president and comic book collector. Captor over there is our super hacka-" 

Captor lets out a defeated sigh. "I thought we agreed to stop calling me that for legal reasons."

"I thought we agreed because "hacka" sounds incredibly fucking dumb." Shades says.

"Fine. Sollux Captor, king of the nerds." Terezi says and he jabs her in the ribs with a straw, making her laugh hysterically, "And that's Dave. Dave's the coolest kid in the entire world." The way she grins at him makes something in your stomach curl jealously, "He writes comics and does stuff for ironic reasons." 

You nod, taking it all in easily. "What makes this the worst table though? It seems like it's a much better table than where that mean girl, Vriska-"

"Spiderbitch." comes a well-practiced chorus from the three of them.

"- is sitting." You finish, as a small smile spreads across your lips, "Isn't this the cool table?"

That's all it takes for your three new friends to descend into hysterical laughter. Even Captor drops his Gameboy onto the table and snorts in a nasally way that you thought only people in cartoons could do. Terezi cackles so loudly that the people on the next table over give you strange looks, glancing back over their shoulders. That girl has a laugh to rival the sound of an airplane taking off, it's so loud. You smile easily at her. Dave chuckles to himself, long after everybody else has stopped laughing, smirking at you like you're in on a private joke. 

"This is _not_ the cool table." Captor clarifies for you, "This is the worst table here." 

"Why?" You press, eager to know all the details. 

"Because..." Dave seems to pause for dramatic effect, "We are the lowest of the low. Well, almost. The only people worse than us are the stoners and honestly, I think that's just us in a few years. The reason this table sucks is because not even the nerds think we're cool." 

"I think you're cool, Dave." Terezi pats him on the arm and snatches his slushy. Her arm brushes against you as she pulls back and she grins at you widely like her heart fluttered the same way yours did. Or maybe you just imagined that. 

"Are you a sophomore too?" You ask Terezi. 

She nods at you and explains that Dave is too. Captor has apparently skipped a grade and is already in his junior year, though he's still choosing to hang around with them. He makes it sound like it isn't a choice though. You unpack your lunch slowly and eat your rolls, enjoying the crunch of lettuce between your teeth and the fishy taste of the tuna. 

Dave shares your chips and Terezi divides your cookie up evenly between four. And honestly, you're so glad to have some new friends that you would have given them your entire lunch if they'd asked. And a maybe a kidney or two. 

"So, you transferred here?" Terezi asks, cookie crumbs stuck to her face, "I heard Vriska say something about your old school... Did you go to that one in the city over?"

"Alternia." You confirm and she nods, knowingly. 

"My brother goes there." Sollux puts in, "Mituna Captor. Senior." He looks at you like he expects you to know who that is but you just shake your head and he sighs, "Whatever." 

"My brother needs to go there." Dave mutters, glancing behind you. 

You turn and try to follow his line of vision, trying to figure out what he's looking at. You can't figure out what his gaze is fixed on so you turn back to the table. It might be the way she makes your chest hurt... But you want to know more about Terezi. You ask her questions and she answers them all easily, casually. 

She lives with her Aunt, her favourite colour is red, she likes superheroes, Vriska is her rival. 

"And I'm a lesbian." She finishes, so loudly and confidently that you're surprised. You glance around to see if she's caught anybody's attention; she notices, "Hey, there's no need to be weird about it. It's just a thing. Like being called a Capricorn." 

"What?" You blush a little. Is she a mindreader? 

"You talk to yourself a lot. I overheard." Terezi shrugs at you.

_Shit._ "I'm a lesbian too." You tell her, unfamiliar with how the word tastes in your mouth. You always type "gay" instead of "lesbian" because it seems somehow more innocent and softer. Now, you're thinking that "lesbian" is a much more powerful word for you to use. You are one. You can't believe you've never used the word out loud before. 

"My gaydar is never wrong." Terezi says, proudly, "Gay kids group together." 

"Dude, get that printed on a shirt for me." Dave says, in mock or perhaps genuine wonder.

And that's how you met your new friends. 

They're a pretty cool group of people, no matter how much Sollux seems to deny it, (Terezi and Dave are both confident in their cool-ness. Cool-albility? You don't know). It's only a week or so before you're joining the group on weekend expeditions. Nearly always, you go somewhere different: festivals, parties, houses, stores, diners. But your favourite is always what Terezi declares adventuring days. They're an invention of her Mom's apparently. 

It involves Dave driving you way out of town, until you're somewhere entirely new. Sometimes, one of boys will lose their bearings but you and Terezi always know which way to walk. Even if you're just guessing. You walk behind her, stepping on her footprints like you're both one person. You all stay grouped close together. If you step back, you always crush someone's foot. 

You wander around the city, the town, the new place that you've never seen before and drink it in with your eyes. At your old school, the only friends you had were in your roleplay group and they never wanted to go anywhere except the recreation centre. Your new friends want to go everywhere and anywhere- even if they do grumble about the walking.

"You know how we could explore new places?" Sollux says, one afternoon in particular, staring at the screen of his phone, "We could go to my place and use my X-Box. We can go to whole other universes on there." 

"You know I can't really play video games." The blind girl is licking an ice cream from the stand you passed a while back; she always seems to be eating or drinking something, always something red, "Besides, you get a chance to catch all those water Pokémon you've been talking about." 

"I can catch water Pokémon at rivers. Or lakes. It doesn't have to be a beach." 

"What about desert Pokémon?" Dave asks, "Don't they like sand?"

Sollux glances up for half a second to scowl at him. 

The four of you are walking down a boardwalk in some small beach town that you've never heard of. It's just about the coolest thing you've ever seen- you haven't been to a beach since you were in first or second grade. Terezi has already promised to take you shell-collecting on the sand later and you honestly can't wait. Maybe the boys will leave the two of you alone and you can talk to her without them interrupting. 

It's not that you don't like Sollux and Dave. They're cool for boys, you guess, and you don't think they have cooties. But you've never had a chance to be alone with Terezi before, if you don't count going to the bathroom- you don't like to go alone and she likes somebody to reapply her lipgloss for her by the sinks. 

"Watch out, short stack." Dave says, grabbing Sollux by the arm and pulling him to the side, "You were about to walk into some random guy. And he wasn't even cute. Dude. Seriously, just put the game away until we stop somewhere." 

"I'm not a kid, I know what I'm doing." Captor huffs, "Screw you, Strider." 

"Screw yourself, Captor." Dave says with an almost smirk. 

Terezi squeezes your hand and you remember she's holding it. She gives you a look, a kind of shared smile, and mouths something about "boys!". You smile back at her and squeeze her hand tightly. She's warm, a little clammy, because it's hot, but you don't care. She finishes her ice cream with most of it smeared on her cheek. You wipe it away with your thumb and rub it clean on the hem of your shirt. It was too hot to wear your parka. 

"Are we going to stop by the arcade?" Terezi asks the whole group but she's looking at you. 

"I'm down." Dave says, realising he's holding Sollux's arm still and dropping it quickly. 

You're not the best at understanding people but you study the look on Dave's face and guess why he did that. Maybe it's not okay to hold onto your friend in public? You and Terezi hold hands all the time, bumping shoulders and hips, sharing smiles with each other. Maybe it's different for boys. You really aren't sure how they work. Boys are weird. 

"Captor?" Terezi drops your hand. She shakes her friend by his shoulders. 

"Wha-?" Sollux looks up from his phone, surprised, "When did we get here?" 

"Dude. Get a life." Dave elbows him, "Let's go play some old-school Mario." 

"I can multitask." Sollux traipses after him. 

Either Dave winks at you or your twitch has become infectious. 

That leaves you and Terezi to look around the arcade; she knows all of the games well, from when she was a little kid and her Mom brought her to places like this, she tells you. You recognise the characters but it takes you a while to figure out how to work these old-games that must have been new when your mom was your age. You ask Terezi if she likes classic games like these and she tells you old-school arcades are the best thing ever. Then, her hands rest on top of yours on the controls and she asks you to describe the screen for her.

You play most of the one-person games as a team. You're the eyes and Terezi is the expert. It takes a little while to get used to working close with somebody but you focus on the smell of her soft hair and the feeling of her hand against yours.

"You're really good at this." She tells you, "Are you sure you've never played before? Your reflexes are even faster than Sollux's and he's some kind of video game genius." 

You didn't even realise you were that good. "Oh, I never really played any games like this before. But I used to LARP a lot and you gotta be quick at thinking when you roleplay." 

"Huh." Terezi looks as if she's considering this, "I guess you're right, though I never really thought about it before. I guess that explains it! We have to roleplay together sometime or cosplay or something. Ooh, we could all go to a con together!"

Your heart sinks a little at the thought of _all_ of you going but you swallow it down. 

"Who would we cosplay as?" You ask, wishing you could look as casual as she does, leaning against the wall of the arcade. You can't lean comfortably so you stand with your hands hanging awkwardly at your side. 

"Hm..." Terezi considers, "Sailor Moon?" 

"Captor might kill you if you made him wear a skirt that short." You say, loving that you know these things and that you can talk just like they do; you feel like you're learning to be a new person, "Have you ever heard of Welcome to Night Vale?"

"Sorry." Terezi shakes her head and sighs, "There must be something we all like." 

You think hard. "Steven Universe?"

It's a show that she had put on as background noise at Dave's apartment last week. You were meant to be playing some kind of board game with them but you just couldn't tear your eyes away from the cartoon. You fixated on it. You had started watching as soon as you had gotten home, finding a lot of comfort in it. The cartoon seemed to understand what it was like. Being you. Being different from everybody else. Your old classmates would have loved it. 

Looking at Terezi, you watch her grin spread slowly from ear to ear as a plan obviously formulates in her mind. She doesn't say a word about it but she hums all the way around the arcade until you bump back into the boys. Sollux has actually put his cellphone in his pocket. 

"TZ." Dave studies her carefully, before continuing, "I know Mario makes it look like a good idea but you shouldn't just go around eating strange mushrooms. You've got a look on your face like you're tripping or something." 

"I've got the best idea for Halloween." Terezi says, "Actually, it was Nepeta's idea. I'll tell you more about it later, Dave." She smiles sickly-sweet at him, "Want to go find those shells, Nepeta? I think we could find some really nice ones." 

You leave the boardwalk and walk on the beach instead, the sand hot and crunchy underfoot. It hasn't rained around here in a longtime. Dave and Terezi walk up ahead, him clutching a pink bucket with a heart on that he apparently bought ironically. They elbow each other, joke and tease, both of them laughing. Suddenly, you don't feel so special. 

"She flirts with everybody. It doesn't mean anything." Sollux offers, helpfully, from beside you, "They both do, actually. I know it's off-putting but I think she really likes you." 

"You do?" You kick sand up into the air with the toe of your boot, "How can you tell?" 

"Because Terezi has rescued a million kids from Vriska. And other people, actually. But she's never invited any of them to sit with us. She must really like you." Sollux says, "Even if she doesn't know it yet. She looks at you funny." 

"Really?" You're hopeful. 

"No shit." Sollux says, "Are you going to wait around for her to make the first move?" 

"How would I make a move?" You ask him and he shrugs, like he has no idea. You decide that the easiest way is to run to catch up and push between her and Dave, hooking arms with both of them. Terezi offers you another world-shattering grin. Dave winks again. 

When Halloween rolls around, you get to find out a little more about Terezi's plan. It involves some plain shirts, a lot of spray paint and some do-it-yourself arts and crafts. You don't like to brag but attending your last school, you're pretty good at painting. It was always your favourite thing to do there, so you got pretty good. Dave can sew pretty well, thanks to his sister and her girlfriend teaching him, and does the difficult stitching parts. He makes sure that your costumes fit in all the right places. 

Now, it's the day before Halloween and you're all in Terezi's bedroom, in full production mode. She has a much bigger house than the rest of you combined, which makes you wonder why you haven't hung out here before. She explains that her aunt doesn't like her having people over too often but she's busy trying to free an innocent civilian from a prison sentence all afternoon and possibly well into the night. You're all staying over for the night to get ready. 

"You're really good at that." Sollux says, peering over Dave's shoulder, "Dude, you have gotta help me out when Comic Con next rolls around." 

"As if your poor ass could ever get tickets to Comic Con." Dave teases. 

"My dads know people." Sollux scowls at him, "We could go. You could come with us." 

You smile at their usual arguing- bantering, Dave calls it- and concentrate on the spear that you're trying to paint blue without getting paint all over the wooden floor. It's a homemade spear made out of cardboard but you think it looks pretty good. 

"Looks great, Nepeta." Terezi calls, in a complete mess with the glue gun that she borrowed from the place her sister works. The glue is stuck all over her hands and drying, sticking to the cornrows that you both had done at the beach. Your hair- coffee coloured and pretty thin- fell out of it's braids within a week. But Terezi has the perfect hair for cornrows. You can't stop staring at how pretty the beads knotted in her dark hair look. 

"Thanks." You tell her, "You look like a mess." 

She laughs and you smile at her, glad you're talking right. 

"Where's your sister, Dave?" Terezi asks him, "I thought she was going to help out today." 

"She finished her costume at home. She said she'd meet us at the party." Dave says, sewing neat lines with the machine and wearing a steady look of concentration on his face. 

Terezi thought your idea was great and she ran with it. Since you didn't have enough people in your group to have all the Crystal Gems, she asked Dave's sister and her girlfriend, Kanaya, if they'd like to join you. They agreed because, Dave reasoned, gay kids stick together. He's still insisting on all of you getting shirts with that printed on. You're beginning to run out of good reasons to not do that. Anyway, the line-up is as following:

Terezi, of course, is Amethyst. Sollux, the local nerd, got stuck with Peridot. Dave insisted on being Lapis because they're both "salty af"- you have no idea what that means. Rose and Kanaya are going to be Ruby and Sapphire because they're a real lesbian (you admire how comfortably the word fits in your mouth now) couple. You're Pearl. And you're happy about it. 

_"We are the crystal gems~"_ You sing along with the TV in a quiet tone because everybody is trying to concentrate. You're sat the closest because, even though you've seen this episode a handful of times, you want to see it again. 

"You must really like _Cry For Help_ , Nepeta. I mean, it's a good episode and all but this is like the tenth time." Dave says, as he works on a piece of purple fabric.

"Twelfth." You correct him, not breaking your eyes away from the screen, "It's my favourite at the moment. I watched it all of yesterday too. It has Sardonyx in it. And Sugilite. And Pearl needs to be with Garnet to make her feel stronger." 

"It's a great episode." Terezi agrees, "I like Opal more, though." 

"Amethyst and Pearl?" You remember. She doesn't mean... You and her? 

Terezi just grins down at the mess she's made of the glue gun. 

You stay the night at Terezi's place and it's the first time you've ever been away from home and your mom. You're okay most of the evening, though you don't like the pizza you have for dinner because it doesn't have any tuna on it. You always have tuna on your pizza. 

You spend most of the evening with your head on Terezi's shoulder and your legs sprawled across Dave's lap. Somehow, you all squish on the couch in the main room. You watch an animated movie and it's so good that even Sollux is into it by the end. You like it because it reminds you of Steven Universe. It's very pretty to look at. You describe it to a Terezi.

After that, you all laze around in Terezi's bedroom and snack and talk about whatever. Your friends are very good at talking, especially Dave and Terezi. You are more quiet- not because you have nothing to say but because the moment is perfect and you don't want to ruin it. Sollux is lying beside you on the inflatable mattress and he keeps pulling faces at you. He's still playing on his phone, intent on keeping control over his gym, whatever that means. He's been playing Pokémon Go for months now. 

When you settle down to sleep, you feel uncomfortable with Sollux, so you swap places with him and lie next to Dave instead. You aren't comfortable there either but you don't say anything because Captor already thinks you don't like him and you don't want Dave to think the same. Instead, you bite down on your lip and try to trap your sobs. You don't even know why you're crying until you realise that it's because you want to go home. A sob escapes through your teeth and seems much too loud in the room. 

"Are you okay?" Dave touches you on the arm, pushing aside the sleeve of your nightshirt so that he can see your face; when he sees you're crying a little, he seems to freak and sits up quickly, "Oh my god, are you okay?"

He has to whisper because Terezi is already snoring and Sollux has curled up as small as he can. He's so short that he looks like a little kid like that and you let out a snort of laughter. It turns into another sob and Dave looks like he wants to say something. He tries to hug you but you shake your head and he takes your hand instead. 

"First time away from home?" He guesses, "Pretty big deal, dude. Want me to drive you home?" 

You shake your head, sniffling. "I don't cry a lot. I promise. I just miss my room." 

"I get homesick too." Dave tells you, "Are you sure I can't take you home?"

"I really like her." You blurt out before you can stop yourself.

"Terezi?" Dave doesn't look surprised, just a little confused, "Well, duh. She likes you too, you know. She's always talking about you."

"She makes me feel so happy and full that I think I'm going to puke sometimes." 

Dave wrinkles his nose. "Love is gross like that, isn't it?" 

"I don't want her to think I'm lame for going home." You say, "I want to stay. I like being here...I like being in her room. It's as close as I'll ever get to being in her head." 

His hand is soft against yours, his skin almost melting into yours. "If you want to stay, I'll stay awake with you until you feel better. If you want, I mean." 

You nod that you'd like that and rubs your snot and tears on your sleeve. You prop yourself up on an elbow and so does he, lying down next to you. And the two of you talk in low tones so that you don't wake the other two up. Dave yawns a lot. You're tired too. But he tells you all about this boy he likes and you're pretty sure it's Sollux. And you tell him about Terezi, even though he already knows more about her than you do. And he tells you about his Bro and you tell him about your old school and the people there. 

You're not sure when you fall asleep but you wake up on the floor, only your arm still on the mattress. You're sore from sleeping like this but you don't care, cracking your eyes open and spying Dave drooling onto his pillow with his mouth slightly open. Sitting up, you notice that Sollux has pulled the covers over his head and resembles a small butterfly in a cocoon. Terezi is missing and you get up to go looking for her. 

It doesn't take long to find her as she's just leaving the bathroom. She's only wearing a loose shirt and her pyjama shorts. A small part of you wishes she was wearing even less and you cross your arms loosely, smiling down at your feet in embarrassment. Not that she can read your mind... But still. When Terezi passes you, she bumps hips with you. You fracture into a million different pieces and mumble a greeting, before hurrying to the bathroom.

Most of the day is decorating the house for Halloween and making last minute costume changes. Rose and Kanaya turn up and they both look wonderful, though Rose is a little too elegant and regal to look like a proper Ruby. Still, their paint is perfect. 

The nice girl, Kanaya, does your make-up for you. It tickles your face. She styles your hair for you too, brushing it back like Pearl's and pinning it carefully so it doesn't come undone. She tells you that your hair is wonderfully soft and you beam with pride. 

When you're dressed in a tunic with your leggings and your ballet shoes, you're shocked at the person you see in the mirror. Because Nepeta Leijon is no longer looking at you. It's a beautiful Pearl staring back at you in surprise and you forget to breathe. You hug Kanaya tightly and thank her for making you look so beautiful. She laughs like the tinkle of wind chimes and tells you that it was honestly no problem. She tells you that you look wonderful. 

When you see Terezi, you almost die. Your heart scratches like a record before carrying on like normal. She's really, really pretty, even though she doesn't look perfect. Her skin is far too dark for any of your cheap paints to cover it but that doesn't seem to matter. Her hair isn't white but it's smoother than usual, more wavy, with glitter combed through it. You think of a million ways to tell her how beautiful she is but decide to use the easiest. 

"You look amazing." It comes out far more awed than you thought it would. 

"Thanks." Terezi laughs her crazy laugh and links her arm through yours.

The boys somehow manage to look just as pretty as the girls and you're amazed by it. Everybody in your group looks so beautiful and unbeatable and out of this world. Terezi insists on taking lots of photos that she'll never see before you head out and hit the streets in search of candy. One thing is for sure: you have the best costumes of anybody you see. 

Terezi asks you if you want to be her girlfriend the day after that, as the two of you are sharing a bath together. You got home from the party so late at night that everybody just crashed at Sollux's place and dealt with the consequences. You don't drink but Sollux and Rose are both exceptionally hungover. Terezi threw up once, went and got McDonald's, and recovered pretty miraculously. Now, she's trying to wash the remnants of the useless body paint off. 

You wanted a shower but she just tells you climb in with her, turning off the taps and stripping down to her underwear. Thankfully, she keeps her bra and her teal boxers on as she sits in the bath. You do the same, slowly pulling off your clothes. And you're glad that she can't see because you look silly in your white underwear your mom buys you. In the same way you realised on the first day that bagged lunches aren't cool, you suddenly realise that wearing babyish underwear like this isn't cool at all. 

"I wish I was as brave as you." You tell her, sinking into the bath until the water reaches your chin. Your legs and her legs tangle in the middle and your feet brush against her torso. This bath isn't exactly small but it wasn't designed for two people. Some soapy bath water slops over the edge and soaks the floor. 

"I wish I was as cool as you." Terezi returns, her voice sore from drinking and her eyes tired from no sleep. Still, she's grinning at you lazily and her hand holds yours under the bubbles. 

"Maybe we should fuse." You suggest, thinking of the gem still painted on your forehead, "Together, we could be one great person." 

_"You might even like being together..."_ Terezi sings, sleepily, and sits up a little straighter in the bath, "I wish I had eyes so that I could look at you, Miss Sophomore. You sound like you're really beautiful. On the inside and the outside. I wish I knew what pretty meant."

"How long have you been blind?" You ask, curiously, watching the water slide back and forth as you sit up a little better too. The water is now only lapping at your collarbone and you feel almost naked in this bath with another girl... It's almost exciting. 

"My eyesight was never good. It went permanently in third grade." Terezi sighs, "I always blame Vriska but it wasn't really her fault. I was such a dumb kid." 

"I think you were cute." You say, thinking of the picture she has of her and her mom stuck up above her bed, "We could have been best friends."

"We are best friends." Terezi promises.

You watch her knees surface from under the water as she pulls them closer to her. 

"I really, really like you." You say, suddenly, unable to keep it inside you anymore. You remember what Sollux said about making the first move, a few weeks ago, and you wonder if that was it. 

"I really, really like you too." Terezi says, and she takes your other hand too, "Is it weird if I ask you to be my girlfriend?" 

You almost faint in the bathtub in surprise. Yes, yes, you tell her, a hundred times yes.

Now, you're going out. It's a lot like hanging out with her but you get to stick much closer together and kiss a lot and hold hands and share milkshakes with two straws and spend time with her alone. You didn't even know how much you wanted that until you got it. Terezi is the best girlfriend you've ever had- even if she's the only one. You see her all day at school and sometimes at weekends, though she understands you need to be alone sometimes. 

You don't spend all your time with her, though. You still spend a lot of time with your other friends too- Sollux and Dave. Rose and Kanaya have started sitting at your lunch table too and just like that, it suddenly stopped being the worst table in the cafeteria. Now, it's almost on the exact same level as Vriska's lunch table. And the spiderbitch is not happy about that. 

Today, you approach the lunch table and step neatly over the foot that Vriska sticks out suddenly in an attempt to trip you up. You sit down with your capri-sun and your candy bars, proud that you're doing things right, and kiss your girlfriend on the cheek as a greeting. She smiles widely at you and returns to working on some overdue Algebra homework. You're not nearly smart enough to help her with that but Sollux leans across the table to correct her work. 

"Hello, Nepeta." Kanaya says to you.

"Hi, Kanaya." You say to her. The two of you have become quite close friends since Halloween because it's nice to have a friend that's so caring and kinda like a Mom. She also pours over fiction in the same way you do, though she likes vampires more than crystal gems and cats. But she understands your need to watch the same episodes over and over. And you cosplay together, dressing up as characters from books she shares with you. 

"Kanaya, dear, everybody's here." Rose says, smiling at her softly; she is sharp like the thorns in her name and only ever seems to soften around the edges when her girlfriend is around, "I think you should tell them all now." 

"What?" You ask, curiously. You didn't know Kanaya and Rose were keeping secrets. 

"You didn't get Kanaya pregnant, did you?" Dave asks, peeling the lid off his cup of coffee, "Because that would be a genuinely impressive advancement in science. You should call up some biologists quick because they're gonna wanna know how you did that." 

"Your obsession with your sister's sex life is creepy, Strider." Captor comments. 

"Freud once said-" Rose begins. 

Terezi cuts her off. "Spare us the therapy, Lalonde." 

"Oh, no, it's nothing like that, Dave." Kanaya laughs like a flutter of wings, "No, actually, it's some news you'll rather enjoy. I remember you saying a while ago that you'd rather like some t-shirts for our little group." She reaches into her bag and pulls out some plastic-packaged coloured shirts, "I took the liberty of printing some for you. As a sort of... Early Christmas present, I suppose." 

"You are shitting my dick right now." Dave says, his mouth hanging open. Coffee put aside, he leans over and picks up a red shirt, studying the writing printed on it. A smile wider than even Terezi's spreads across his face. "Finally, the gay squad can be on point." 

"This is so cool!" Terezi says, excitedly, "Kanaya made us squad shirts! Can you pass me the reddest one you can find, Nep?"

You fish a red one out of the mix and hand it to her, watching in amusement as she pushes her Algebra homework aside and starts trying to wriggle her way into the shirt. You can't deny that you're excited too and pick out a green one, unzipping your parka and shrugging it off your shoulders. You place it carefully on the table before studying the shirt carefully. It's exactly the kind of shirt Dave has been talking about since September. 

On the front, it reads "GAY KIDS GROUP TOGETHER" in a simple, pretty font. You flip it over and there it is, a picture of you all dressed up at Halloween. Your heart is bump-bump-bumping in your chest as you tug it on over your other shirt. It hangs loosely off your body, just perfect, and you stuff your parka into your messenger bag. You've never felt better in your life. 

All your friends wear their shirts around for the rest of the day and all you can do is beam at her when Vriska calls you a lesbian. You then proceed to kiss Terezi against her lunch table, while she watches in surprise, like she wasn't expecting you to do anything. 

When you're leaving school, Terezi catches up to you. 

"I thought you had debate club today." You blink at her, "Did it get cancelled?"

"Nope!" Terezi shrugs, "But it's Christmas break starting tomorrow and you're my girlfriend and I was wondering if you wanted to come back to mine and watch a movie. We can keep the volume down low so it doesn't bother you." She starts to walk with you, "Or maybe we could watch some Steven Universe." 

"Can we watch _Cry For Help_?" You ask. 

"I'll race you home." Terezi says, "And the winner gets to pick first." 

The two of you are racing down the sidewalk, feet pounding against the pavement and lungs sucking in air, before anybody can even say ready-set-go. And you're running at the speed of light, Terezi grinning at your side, and you feel like you're soaring.


End file.
